Hurricane Harvey has created chaos in Texas and resulted in the shutting down of at least 45 water systems, leaving thousands in southeast Texas without safe drinking water and boil water notices being issued in 171 areas.

Houston too came close to a water disaster, but despite significant flooding at one of its water plants, Houston officials recently revealed just how close they came to a potential drinking water crisis.

Harvey flooded the northeast water purification plant, and according to a report on CBS, the city’s drinking water system was hours away from failure. The machines that kept its water filters clean were themselves under water, which almost resulted in the plant shutting down, which would have resulted in a huge blow being dealt to a city already in crisis.

Drew Molly, the facility’s assistant director, said: “The filters are the life blood of the plant. If you lose filtration, there’s nothing you can do.”

In order to rescue the situation, Molly and his team went into survival mode, slashing the amount of clean water the plant was pumping out in an effort to buy more time for the filters. Aqua barriers and pumps were then brought in to remove all the floodwater, without which the plant would have had to shut down. Thanks to this quick action the pump is functioning normally again, providing around 2.2 million customers with clean water.

Not everyone in the Houston area gets drinking water from the city though, and this meant that some individuals had to rely on private wells. Many who had not had wells or boreholes before were forced to get contractors in to drill.

Many houses were under three feet of flood water containing a myriad of toxins and pollutants, including faecal matter, E. coli and other bacteria. Damages are heavy and it is going to cost a lot for those affected to rebuild.

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